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Old 03-30-2013, 09:43 AM   #1
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Dead battery

I parked my 2012 29RLDS about 3 weeks ago. Yesterday I went to check something and the battery was completely dead. I noticed that when I parked it after a 300 mile trip back from my last outing that the battery indicator only showed 2/3 charged. I called the dealer, it's still under warranty. They said the slow charge it for 2 days and check with a hydrometer. I hope it's just a bad battery and nothing serious. I don't think I left anything on but I'm not 100% positive. The thing that worries me is that it only showed 2/3 charged after the trip home.
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Old 03-30-2013, 10:05 AM   #2
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i always forget to shut off the the antenna booster
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Old 03-30-2013, 10:36 AM   #3
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i always forget to shut off the the antenna booster
Now that you mentioned it, I had it on and don't remember turning it off. I will check it when I pot the battery back in, Thank you
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Old 03-30-2013, 11:26 AM   #4
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that drains the battery pretty quick by leaving it on. My dealer made a point to mention that, yet I still forget.
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Old 03-30-2013, 11:39 AM   #5
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Probably the gas detector in the trailer. It stays on all the time as long as the battery is hooked up. Even though the amount of drain is small, it can kill even a good battery in a couple of weeks. That is unless you install a battery shutoff switch like I did.
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Old 03-30-2013, 11:45 AM   #6
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Just the constant 12v draw from the CO alarm and radio clock will drain a battery in a couple of weeks. I pull my batteries when parked and put them on a battery tender, but simply disconneting the ground cable from the battery terminal will stop the volatage draw. Time will certainly still have an effect on state of charge. Many folks have either fused the ground cable or installed a battery shut-off switch to stop the drain.

I wouldn't worry to much about the 2/3 battery charge indicated...they are not accurate.
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Old 03-30-2013, 12:41 PM   #7
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There's a pretty easy way to verify that your tow vehicle is charging your trailer batteries. Just have your trailer unplugged from AC but plugged into your tow. Start your tow and check the voltage at your RV batteries - it should be in the area of 13.5 to 14.5 volts, if your tow vehicle is charging them.
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Old 03-30-2013, 12:50 PM   #8
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certainly hope your battery will be ok - chances are it will not. Once the batteries go below 50% charge state for any period of time it really does a number on them.

I would also be surprised the company would replace that under warranty as well???? This is not a battery failure. You just left the lights on for three weeks so to speak...

The best thing to do is install a BATTERY DISCONNECT switch and when you leave it unattended just flip the battery switch OFF. They wont go down if disconnected...

Looks something like this...
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I would slow charge it back up and maybe take it one of the auto parts stores that will test it for you for free...

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Old 03-30-2013, 08:25 PM   #9
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I hooked the trailer up to the tow vehicle (without the battery in the trailer) and everything worked fine. So the tow vehicle is putting out power. I have had the battery on a trickle charger for a day and used a hydrometer on it and only 1 ball out of 4 floats, so I guess the battery is bad. I called the dealer and they said I had a 1 year warranty on the battery, they would replace it if it was bad. I will let it charge over the week end and check it again Monday, if it still doesn't charge I'll take it to the dealer and get another one and install a cut off switch.
I have let this trailer set for 2 months before with a problem but I guess the battery was low enough now that it went dead.
Thanks again for the help, I appreciate it
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Old 03-30-2013, 11:58 PM   #10
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If your TT sits in storage more than on the road, for go the cutoff switch and get a battery tender. Just pull the batteries when the TT is in storage and put them on the tender.
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Old 04-02-2013, 06:18 AM   #11
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I plugged my tow vehicle into the trailer without the battery in it and everything worked fine, so my tow vehicle is putting out power, I installed the battery after a 2 day slow charge at 2 amps, the battery indicator in the trailer registered full, I unhooked the battery cable and will check in a couple days to see if it will hold a charge, If not I guess I will need a new battery, Thanks everyone for the suggestions, I will look into a battery disconnect anyway.
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Old 04-02-2013, 06:41 AM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by joe in calif View Post
. I have had the battery on a trickle charger for a day and used a hydrometer on it and only 1 ball out of 4 floats, so I guess the battery is bad.
Thanks again for the help, I appreciate it
A trickle charger will not recharge a dead battery.. they are for maintaining your battery...
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Old 04-02-2013, 08:05 AM   #13
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I have only recovered a couple of times in my lifetime bringing back a dead battery to life. This is was done with a low level long term charge like the trickle chargers produces. Then if I see any possible life coming back then I start increasing the charge voltage to draw more amps in an effort to burn off the core build-up. I am guessing not many batteries will recover once this happens. They are toast...

If I would hit a shorted out battery with a bunch of voltage at once the battery would get extremely hot and might even blow-up on you. I would think coming up as slow as you can would be the best method to try to recover a bad battery.

I am old enough to remember the battery charging tactics in the early 50s where the big thing was a ONE HOUR charge using about 25-50 VOLTS DC rated at over 100AMPs. Those batteries in those days almost looked cherry red as hot as they got. I saw one blowup at a gas station once and the battery top blew up over the garage. Not a pretty scene... That was the designated way to charge batteries back then.

Last spring I lost one of my 85AH standard issue Interstate Deep Cycle batteries. I had just picked up one of the good Black and Decker VEC1093DBD smart mode battery chargers and I tried and tried to recover the Interstate battery over a weeks time. At one point I thought I had it trying to recover but to no avail. It would never get higher than about 5.5VDC state of charge. I had good bubbling of fluids in all cores cap except one. I suspect that was the shorted out core. I even tried the battery tilt method as well trying to burn off the particles.

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